The present invention relates to a method for detecting external influence on an optical cable. The invention can be used as a sensor in an intrusion alarm, in which case the cable is buried and an alarm is triggered when someone treads on it. The invention can also be used as a surveillance system for an optical cable transmitting information. The present and more and more accelerating computerization presupposes in order to be effective that the computers are directly connected to each other. The demand for transmission capasity and quality makes cables having optical fibres well suited as transmission medium. Concurrently with the increased demand for capasity the optical cables will dominate completely.
The demand on an optical fibre connection handling sensitive information will be, that some sort of security system is installed. As the only possible future communication medium is optical fibres, the security systems will also be optical. Optical fibres is a medium which itself has a very great resistance against information tapping. It is very difficult to tap information from an optical fibre, but it is not impossible.
Today there exist some systems for discovering unauthorized influence on an optical fibre, all of which are based upon surveillance of the optical effect that is transmitted in the fibre core. The principle is in short that the external influence will lower the energy level in the fibre, at which an alarm is trigged. The method can be compared to an intensity modulated sensor, which is the least sensitive sensor type. The systems have considerable disadvantages and can not with an accaptable degree of security discover unauthorized dealing with the optical fibre or cable.